The address changed from "Brother Chen" to "Mr. Chen." Chen Dongyang, being no fool, looked at her, his expression unreadable, and asked, "Are you angry?"
"..."
Tiantian feigned ignorance. "Angry about what?"
He saw through her. "There's no need. She's just like that, all talk and no thought. You'll find out if you spend more time with her."
*Hmph, you seem to spend quite a lot of time with her, knowing her so well.*
Tiantian turned her head towards the window, annoyed. "That's not true. Wushuang and I already discussed it last night. We were planning to tell you today anyway."
"You're so busy, this constant running around isn't a good thing."
Chen Dongyang couldn't help but glance at her profile again.
Half of her black, lustrous hair fell onto her chest, obscuring her face, only her slightly curled eyelashes were visible.
Since she wanted to live with her best friend, he didn't say anything more and nodded with a simple "Mm."
As the car entered the residential complex, Chen Dongyang was getting the wheelchair out when Huihui called.
Frowning slightly, Chen Dongyang answered while opening the passenger door.
Huihui's gentle voice came through. "Dongyang, did Miss Jiang arrive safely?"
Chen Dongyang's hand remained on the car door, and he asked indifferently, "Is there something?"
"It's not a big deal, I just wanted to ask if you arrived safely. Are you still going to her place for lunch? If not, could you spare some time to come over here? My electric scooter's battery seems to have a problem; it loses power while I'm riding. I have to kick it to get it working again. This morning, going to buy groceries took over an hour."
Tiantian turned her face towards the driver's seat.
Chen Dongyang's gaze swept across her face and then turned to look outside.
"I understand, I'll make time to come over at noon."
"Okay, then I'll prepare lunch and wait for you. Don't eat out. Dou Bao hasn't seen you in days either; he misses you a lot."
After hanging up, Chen Dongyang reached out to hug Tiantian, but she felt a strange aversion. She lifted her right leg, which was positioned properly, and braced her hands on the car door.
"I can do it myself. Could you help me push the wheelchair over?"
Chen Dongyang silently pushed the wheelchair over, and Tiantian carefully sat in it.
As Chen Dongyang moved to push her into the lobby, Tiantian applied the brakes.
"You don't need to. The road ahead is flat, I can slide right into the elevator. Please don't make another trip. You've been working very hard lately, thank you."
With that, she entered the lobby without waiting for Chen Dongyang's reply, not looking back.
Watching the tall, bright glass doors slowly close in front of him, Chen Dongyang felt a dull ache in his chest.
But he also knew. He couldn't chase after her to explain.
He had no right to. Never would.
At half-past eleven, Chen Dongyang would usually be back to make her lunch, but not today.
Tiantian hadn't eaten breakfast and decided to order takeout and pick it up herself at the community entrance.
As she was browsing on her phone, Chen Dongyang sent her a WeChat message.
"Have you eaten?"
A bittersweet feeling welled up in her heart. She wanted to pretend she hadn't seen the message, but after holding back, she couldn't resist replying.
"I have."
"What did you eat? Takeout?"
"Is there something you need, Mr. Chen?"
There was a pause on his end. "I'm downstairs. If you don't want me to come up, please come down."
He was downstairs?
It was infuriating that she couldn't stand up at this moment, or Tiantian would have truly rushed to the window to look down.
Her heart pounded, and an indescribable excitement surged through her.
But Tiantian knew this was wrong and had to suppress it.
Her hands trembled as she typed, "Didn't you have something to do at noon? Why are you here again?"
"Miss Zhu hasn't moved in yet, and I was afraid it would be inconvenient for you to eat alone, so I brought you lunch. Please come down."
She really wanted to go down and see him, but, but...
"I told you I already ate."
Chen Dongyang paused for a moment, placed the food packaging box on the edge of the flower bed, and sent her a photo.
"I'm leaving. If you want to eat it, come down and get it. If not, just throw it away."
The entire afternoon, Tiantian was enveloped in a inexplicable sense of irritation, making her uncomfortable whether lying down or sitting.
She stared at the empty takeout box, looking at it again and again, and finally sent a message to Wushuang.
"What are you doing? Chat with me."
Wushuang was writing a proposal and had just had it rejected by her boss, desperately pulling at her hair.
"I have no inspiration, I can't write. All these years of studying are wasted, I'm so useless."
Tiantian said, "Creativity will eventually dry up. I understand how you feel. Take your time; if there's no inspiration, there's no inspiration. Rushing won't help."
Wushuang sent a crying emoji. "I wish you were my boss."
Tiantian replied, "I wish I could be your boss, but you have to give me the chance. How about changing jobs?"
Wushuang became shy again. "Come on, people rely on their parents, boyfriends, or husbands. I'm relying on my best friend. We're the same age, same education, I can't afford to lose that face."
"Alright, alright, your face is precious. Then you can continue to suffer. By the way, how are things between you and your boss?"
"Us..."
As they were talking, Wushuang went silent.
Tiantian stared at the phone screen for several minutes before finally seeing the words "is typing" reappear.
"Ah! Speaking of my boss, he just called me over. Oh my, ever since that business trip, I feel so guilty every time I see him. My heart was pounding when I went to his office!"
Tiantian's attention was finally diverted, and she felt a little better.
"What happened? What did he call you for?"
"Nothing much, he gave me a box, and I haven't opened it yet."
"Quick, quick, quickly open it and see."
Wushuang sneakily placed the box under her desk and opened it. Both of her cheeks immediately turned as red as apples.
"Help me, what does he mean by this? He actually sent me a phone!"
"What phone?"
Wushuang sent her a picture. It was the latest model of a certain fruit phone, costing over ten thousand yuan, which was equivalent to her one and a half months' salary.
Tiantian asked her, "What did he say when you went to his office earlier? Is he trying to hit on you?"
Wushuang said, "He didn't say anything, he just pushed a box towards me and said you left something with him on the last business trip. I was curious, I didn't lose anything, how could I have left something behind?"
"Oh, I remember now. That night, after the client dinner, when I was helping him, my phone accidentally fell and the screen cracked. But it was just a matter of replacing the tempered glass protector. I thought he didn't know."
"It's definitely not a romantic gesture; he's compensating me. I can't accept it, I really can't."
Tiantian also said she shouldn't accept it.
Let alone if it wasn't broken, even if it was truly broken, with their relationship not yet declared, it would be incredibly tactless to have their boss apologize and give gifts.
"Then when should I return it to him?"
Tiantian said, "After work. When there's no one around. Otherwise, if you're carrying a box back and forth, it will definitely attract attention."